This invention relates to an apparatus for facilitating the playing of the game of bingo.
Bingo is a game of chance wherein numbered balls are drawn from a hopper for comparison with numbers appearing on bingo cards purchased by the players. Each bingo card has twenty-four numbered squares plus one free space. The numbered squares are arranged in five columns, with five numbers in each column, As the caller draws each numbered ball out of the hopper, the number is called out to the players. Each player places a disc on each square of the card or cards containing a called-out number. The process is repeated during the course of the game.
The winning player is the person who first covers the called-out numbers in a pre-specified combination of squares on his/her bingo card. Different games can be played simultaneously, e.g. covering the four corner squares, or the six interior squares, or the sixteen outside squares. The caller announces at the start of each game the particular winning square orientations for that game. Each player has to be aware of the possible winning square combinations. However, when a player is playing a large number of bingo cards, he/she may be so busy scanning the cards as to forget which winning combinations remain to be matched.
The present invention is concerned with an apparatus to remind the player of the winning square combinations remaining for a given call of the bingo numbers. The apparatus, in its preferred form, comprises a stand adapted for placement on a table surface facing the player. The stand includes a horizontal axis pivot means for swingably suspending a plural number of panels. Each panel has indicia representing a particular winning bingo square combination, e.g. the four corner squares, or the six interior squares, or the sixteen outside squares.
The number of panels can vary, depending on the different number of winning square combinations commonly used at the particular place where bingo is being played. Typically, there will be three, four or five panels. Each panel can be swung around its pivot suspension axis so that either face of the panel is presented to the bingo player.
At the start of a bingo game, the caller announces which winning square combinations will be in effect for that game. At that time, the player turns the panels so that the panel faces with the appropriate indicia are presented for his/her viewing; the other panels are turned so that their blank faces are viewable.
During the course of the game, the player can periodically glance at the array of panels to quickly remind himself or herself of the winning square combinations remaining for that game. As someone bingos one of the winning square combinations, e.g. the four outside corners, the panel having that winning square indicia thereon is turned so that its blank face comes into view. The player thus is able to better focus on the remaining winning square combinations. The panels are reset at the start of each game.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,057 to C. McCullen represents a prior art attempt at facilitating the playing of the game of bingo. The patent discloses a system of templates having various different orientations of cut outs mated to the squares on bingo cards. A selected template is placed over each card (or group of cards) so that only a particular orientation of squares is visible or highlighted.
The template placed over a bingo card induces the player to focus on a particular orientation of winning squares. However, the template is only useful when the game involves a single winning square combination. When the game involves multiple winning square combinations, the template might actually prove a detriment because it could mask or obscure a winning square combination. The apparatus of the present invention is believed to be a patentable departure from the template concept disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,057.